A Rhetorical Perspective for HIV Education with Black Urban Adolescents

Abstract

This essay encourages communication researchers to understand better the rhetorical situation that challenges acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) educators working with out-of-school, African American adolescents in urban centers. Using Bitzer's (1968) schema and research from public health and allied fields, the authors identify those culturally based experiences and attitudes that rhetors (health educators) must integrate into lines of argument and appeals for AIDS prevention campaigns for this particularpool of perceivers. They illustrate the factors that impinge on channel selection, credibility and effectiveness of the rhetor, and message construction.